August 30, 2018

The International 2016: 1st Open Qualifier Results

Team Secret, Evil Geniuses (EG), Vici Gaming (VG), and White Fries have qualified for The International 2016’s Closed Regional Qualifiers after two grueling days of competition in the Open Qualifiers.

Team Secret went on a 12-0 streak as they swept through the European Open Qualifiers, beating Team Spirit and Danish Bears in the finals to be the first European Open Qualifier team to join the Regional Qualifiers.

EG topped the American Open Qualifiers as they swept through teams including Shazam, Luccini, and Perky Pepperonis without dropping a single game. The finals saw brother fight against brother as EG’s Syed “Sumail” Hassan faced his brother Yawar “YawaR” Hassan of the aptly named EG.Bulba in a lopsided 2-0 win for EG.

A resurgent VG went on a FTD Club teamkill, eliminating the club’s Young, C, and A teams on their way to the finals, where they defeated CDEC Avenger 2-1. VG is comprised of longtime Chinese veterans Liu “Sylar” Jiajun, Chen “Cty”’ Tianyu, Bai “ROTK”’ Fan, and legendary carry player Xu “BurNIng” Zhilei switching to playing support.

A familiar name returns to the scene as Benedict “hyhy” Lim, famous for being one of the stars the Valve documentary ‘Free to Play,’ won the Southeast Asian Open Qualifier alongside fellow veterans Lee “kYxY” Kongyang, Nicholas “xFreedom” Lim, and Li “chisbug” Chen in White Fries Gaming. White Fries swept through Extremist Dota2 and Team SeeD before beating Mineski-X 2-0 in the finals.

The second phase of the Open Qualifiers will continue to determine the other 4 teams that will get into the main Regional Qualifiers for the chance to compete in August’s The International 2016.

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